Install the Kubernetes Agent Server (KAS)

The Kubernetes Agent Server (KAS) is a GitLab backend service dedicated to managing Kubernetes Agents.

The KAS is already installed and available in GitLab.com under wss://kas.gitlab.com. See how to use GitLab.com’s KAS. This document describes how to install a KAS for GitLab self-managed instances.

Installation options

As a GitLab administrator of self-managed instances, you can install KAS according to your GitLab installation method:

You can also opt to use an external KAS.

Install KAS with Omnibus

For Omnibus package installations:

  1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb to enable the Kubernetes Agent Server: 

    gitlab_kas['enable'] = true

  2. Reconfigure GitLab.

To configure any additional options related to your KAS, refer to the Enable GitLab KAS section of the gitlab.rb.template.

Install KAS with the GitLab Helm Chart

For GitLab Helm Chart installations, you must set global.kas.enabled to true. For example, in a shell with helm and kubectl installed, run: 

helm repo add gitlab https://charts.gitlab.io/
helm repo update
helm upgrade --install gitlab gitlab/gitlab \
  --timeout 600s \
  --set global.hosts.domain=<YOUR_DOMAIN> \
  --set global.hosts.externalIP=<YOUR_IP> \
  --set certmanager-issuer.email=<YOUR_EMAIL> \
  --set global.kas.enabled=true # <-- without this, KAS will not be installed

To configure KAS, use a gitlab.kas sub-section in your values.yaml file: 

gitlab:
  kas:
    # put your KAS custom options here

For details, see how to use the GitLab-KAS chart.

Use an external KAS installation

Introduced in GitLab 13.10.

Besides installing KAS with GitLab, you can opt to configure GitLab to use an external KAS.

For GitLab instances installed through the GitLab Helm Chart, see how to configure your external KAS.

For GitLab instances installed through Omnibus packages:

  1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb adding the paths to your external KAS: 

    gitlab_kas['enable'] = false
gitlab_kas['api_secret_key'] = 'Your shared secret between GitLab and KAS'

gitlab_rails['gitlab_kas_enabled'] = true
gitlab_rails['gitlab_kas_external_url'] = 'wss://kas.gitlab.example.com' # User-facing URL for the in-cluster agentk
gitlab_rails['gitlab_kas_internal_url'] = 'grpc://kas.internal.gitlab.example.com' # Internal URL for the GitLab backend

  2. Reconfigure GitLab.

Troubleshooting

If you face any issues with KAS, you can read the service logs with the following command: 

kubectl logs -f -l=app=kas -n <YOUR-GITLAB-NAMESPACE>

In Omnibus GitLab, find the logs in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-kas/.

See also the user documentation for troubleshooting problems with individual agents.

KAS logs - GitOps: failed to get project info

If you get the following error message: 

{"level":"warn","time":"2020-10-30T08:37:26.123Z","msg":"GitOps: failed to get project info","agent_id":4,"project_id":"root/kas-manifest001","error":"error kind: 0; status: 404"}

It means that the specified manifest project root/kas-manifest001 doesn’t exist or the manifest project is private. To fix it, make sure the project path is correct and its visibility is set to public.

KAS logs - Configuration file not found

If you get the following error message: 

time="2020-10-29T04:44:14Z" level=warning msg="Config: failed to fetch" agent_id=2 error="configuration file not found: \".gitlab/agents/test-agent/config.yaml\

It means that the path to the configuration project is incorrect, or the path to config.yaml inside the project is not valid.

To fix this, ensure that the paths to the configuration repository and to the config.yaml file are correct.